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Monday, September 19, 2016

Easy Colorful Toddler Art: Painting with Acorns

Growing up on the East Coast Fall meant piles of leaves, acorns, and cool weather. In California where we live it is often HOT and still feels like summer when I am ready to put on warmer clothes and go crunch through some leaves.

We've been sharing several Fall themed activities over on Instagram using the #falltoddlerfun hashtag. I am @kristinatoddlerapproved if you want to come follow along.

Last year we shared some acorn number busy bag activities. Last week I found our bag of acorns that we'd used (fake ones from a local craft store) and we pulled them out to play with them. We grabbed some paint and ended up painting with the acorns. It was AWESOME.

HERE'S HOW YOU PAINT WITH ACORNS:

MATERIALS NEEDED:

acorns

paper

washable paint

shoebox

DIRECTIONS FOR PAINTING WITH ACORNS:

Start by putting some paint out on plates that is easily accessible. Have the kids dip an acorn into each color paint.

Place the colored acorns in a box filled with plain white paper.

Close the lid of the shoebox and keep it closed. Shake and shake the box while the colorful acorns roll around inside.

Open the box and admire your beautiful work!

And REPEAT!

My kids loved doing this again and again.

The process was the most important part of this activity. It didn't really matter what the art actually looked like at the end... though it was pretty!

As part of this activity we focused on Color "friends." Since it is Friendship Week we decided to talk about how some colors are "friends" and they work well together and make pretty colors... and how some colors just turn brown/black when they are mixed together.

Kids worked together to pick colors that looked good. Blue and yellow, yellow and red, and blue and red were both favorites. By mixing two colors together in the box I was able to teach the kids how to make green (with blue and yellow), orange (red and yellow), and purple (red and blue). Before we started the kids would predict what color we would end up with, and then we'd check to see if we were right at the end.

Making the box shake like crazy was the best part of this activity. Watching the kids open the box and get excited about their pretty creation was another highlight!

Have you ever painted with acorns or anything else fun?

This simple activity is being shared as part of I Can Teach My Child's Toddler Time series! On Mondays we do COLOR activities!

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